I like to think of the wiki as a [u]quick[/u] reference tool. So Have the vital information and then speculation can be adjusted as the story unfolds. Anything deeper than a summary of each chapter and it will almost look like we are turning the graphic novel into a standard novel, lol.

charles wrote:Yeah, I feel like I was getting a bit too detailed in the single page. Better to have multiple small pages that it could link to. So instead of going on about Kari's actions in the Battle of White-Rim, I can just detail the whole battle elsewhere and link kari's page to it.

Still... I fell like I really nailed some stuff in it.

I think it's the Girl Genius Wiki that has a 'wild speculation' section which is where people parse their ideas into a big throbbing fanbase mess. Perhaps we do a speculation section - where you can put what you think you Nailed?

charles wrote:On the page details. Yeah, the one think I hate about the Erfwiki for Erfworld is that they've got a page for every single comic page AND a page for every single panel AND a page for the text in that panel . Any time you hit the random page button it takes about 20 hits before you come across something that ISN'T just a page about a single panel or the text in it. So I've got a single page that will have the whole comic summarised page by page but its actually just has links to other pages which will detail only a single chapter each (This way you only change the summary in one place). I don't plan to go down to individual pages for comic pages let alone individual pages for each panel, but maybe I'll create a page that can just have a wall of text containing all thats been said in speech bubbles for reference.

You can link to subtitles in a page, not just entire pages, so you don't need individual pages for every detail, but at the same time, some pages (such as character sheets) shouldn't be entire walls of text, so I'll try and keep it summarised.

Shudder - yep, let's avoid that collection of intricate speculation. I don't know about the dialogue placed verbatim, I kinda like the idea of having to flip back and forth through the webcomic to find stuff (and in so doing you can get distracted by other brilliant unexpected discoveries) but that's just me - I guess if I want that, then I will just avoid that part of the Wiki.

Lokekar Kra wrote:I like to think of the wiki as a quick reference tool. So Have the vital information and then speculation can be adjusted as the story unfolds. Anything deeper than a summary of each chapter and it will almost look like we are turning the graphic novel into a standard novel, lol.

That's close to my opinion on a good Wiki. Ah hang it, it is my opinion ...

I'm out of my depth here -- about how to navigate around the wiki, let alone edit it. (though who knows... one day... ) Can I ask the Knowledgable a question?:

Where would I find information on the politics/history behind the war?

******

Hey!! Just actually did an edit -- but only to clean up a trivial spelling matter. Still and all...
And I think I'm working out the answer to my question -- is it "Write it yourself, if you want it written"?"

******

Hhmmm... and I see it goes on record as having been done by "A Wikia contributor" -- so I should have logged in separately there, then? I live and learn.

The main codes to know in a wiki are the double square brackets on either side of a key word. They are used to make the keyword link to a relevant page. So if I mention "Kari flies Vaegyr's newly aquired Scimitar" in the page on Kari then I'll write "Kari flies [[Vaegyr]]'s newly aquired [[Scimitar]]" and this will cause Vaegyr's name to link to his page and Scimitar to link to the page on that fighter (provided one has been created). Even if the page hasn't been created yet, its good to link the word if you know its likely to be created in the future. Links to pages not created yet, are shown in red while working links display as blue.

You can even link to a particular heading within another page. For instance. I might link the word "Fighter" to the section on Fighters under the Spaceship page by doing this [[Spaceship#Fighter|Fighter]]. I'm actually doing another tricking thing there. Obviously I don't want to display the text "Spaceship#Fighter" in the page, just link the word "Fighter" so use a "pipe" character (usually a shifted '\' key above the "Enter" key) after the link to give the name you want to use in the document. I frequently use this when I mention the "crew of Niobe" by saying "[[Niobids|crew]] of [[Niobe]]" where I link the word "crew" to the page "Niobids" and the word "Niobe" directly to the page on that ship.

After that, you've got templates which get complex. The black boxes you can see in the character pages with images of the relevant character and details about them, are based on a template I created and link to. I also made one for space stations and KeanDL made one for starships with the same appearance.

We're supposed to be linking to the sources of information we provide in the wiki, but it can be difficult to find and link back an external URL each time. I plan on creating a reference template which will make it as simple as putting in something like {{CD|2|3}} to reference and link to Crimson Dark, Chapter 2, Page 3 and display automatically as CD:Chapter 2, Page 3 (that should be in superscript but it doesn't seem to work in these forums )

MY RECOMMENDATION: Stick to editing existing pages by filling out sections that haven't been elaborated on or fixing spell checks and you'll gain familiarity by looking at the code that others have writen for those pages and eventually know what to do for your own or major edits. If you create a login for yourself, then you'll also get a userpage and talk page of your own that you can edit and play with at your hearts content to get a feel for the code.

Good Luck.

P.S. There's an excellent story in the Crimson Dark Supporter's club which tells the story of how the war begun. Actually, I think its the first story David ever provided on there.

You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Its quite a simple system once you know it. I'm actually struggling not to put square brackets around things when I talk here in the forums

REDIRECT
Another neat trick. Obviously, some people are going to type in Kari instead of Kari Tyrell, or even Fury. Heck, no-one is likely to type in Captain Vaegyr Anderson Ward. But you can create the page using the long name and then create another one using the short name and insert a redirect which automatically takes the user to the main page without . So the page for Kari simply has the code #REDIRECT [[Kari Tyrell]] which redirect people who type in "Kari" to "Kari Tyrell" automatically. I also redirect her callsign "Fury" to "Kari Tyrell as well.

REDIRECT TO A SUBHEADING
Obviously I don't need an entire page to describe what a "Fighter" is, so I created a page called "Spaceship" which lists ALL the various classes of vessels in the Crimson Dark universe. But I don't want to type in [[Spaceship#Fighter|fighter]] every time its mentioned, so I created a redirect page for "Fighter" with the code #REDIRECT [[Spaceship#Fighter]] so I can simply put the brackets around the word [[Fighter]] like so, and it will not only redirect people to the Spaceship page but actually right down to the section that explains the Fighter class of spaceship. I did the same for all of the spaceship pages that KeanDL made with titles such as "Tempest class Battleship" by linking the page "Tempest" like so #REDIRECT [[Tempest class Battleship]] for when the class alone is mentioned.

Yeah, on the history thing, I did write a wikipage titled "The Second Cirin-Darani War" which is the present confilict. In there I gave some brief information on the trigger for the war, but obviously I don't want to elaborate too much on anything David has in the Supporters Club as thats his bread and butter to an extent and it looses value if we just let everyone know all the details. For the most part, I use the comments David has made about the stories he's put in the Supporters Club in the page blogs for forums since those are obviously public.

@DAVID: I found out how to apply permissions and put a heap of instructions on your talk page for you. Effectively you have "Bureaucrat" permissions which means you can do ANYTHING including making other people "Bureaucrats" or making them Administrators. Administrators can do everything EXCEPT make other people "Administrators" or "Bureaucrats". So they can protect pages, ban regular users, edit protected pages and even delete pages (normal users are NOT capable of this).

note: the one thing "Bureaucrats" can't do is block or delete another "Bureaucrat", so if you promote someone to the role, you can't get rid of them if they mess your site up, but they can't get rid of you either. There is a process to get rid of them which involves informing the Wikia staff and requesting them to remove the permissions. They seem to be fairly on the ball so I can't imagine that would ever be an issue.

Finally finished most of the reference work. Every single news associated with each page is now in the wiki for easy referencing and the pages have a special template for linking back to the comic site. I've also altered the main page like mad and put in an initial help section for editors down the bottom which is still under serious construction but its a great start.

Hope to see you all over there making new pages, fixing spelling mistakes, updating existing ones and chatting/blogging about the wiki either there or here.